Communications devices which provide a relatively error free and propagation delay predictable interface between a data receiving device and a network such as a central switching office or cellular network are desirable. Most communications devices, however, only provide the capability to detect errors and predict and control propagation delays within certain tolerances and use adaptive components to reduce the level of errors in data received from a network and to make the propagation delay more predictable.
While the error detection and correction and propagation delay compensation capabilities provided by communications devices may be acceptable for some applications, there are applications where the communications devices' capabilities are unacceptable. An example of such an application is where power magnitude and phase information are communicated between substations. In these applications, even data errors within the error tolerance of the communications device may cause unacceptable control problems in a substation, such as excessive tap position changes of power transformers.
In addition, adaptive components in the communications devices may provide propagation delays that are unpredictable as a function of the communications device and the network or telecommunications channel. For certain applications, such as communication between substations, the propagation delays may be required to be predictable in order to enable substation control devices to determine the overall propagation delay between substations and to adjust control accordingly. In such data and time critical applications, a gateway or other device is desirable between the communications device and data receiving device to provide tighter tolerances on errors and consistent propagation delays incurred by the communications device as it processes the data received over a network.